Nolito reflects on Manchester City and 'wizard' Pep Guardiola and lack of 'leaders' in his team: 'He is in charge. And that's enough leadership'

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Nolito doesn't want to see Pep Guardiola again. Not for a while anyway.

It's not because he sidelined him for three months and sold him last season: 'I scored six goals at the start and then, suddenly, he clipped my wings,' he says.

It's because he has seen how Manchester City have in his words: 'gone off like a rocket' this season and that Guardiola, having learned from the mistakes of his first year, will perhaps not be stopped this time.

Nolito poses for the camera ahead of Sevilla's Champions League meeting with Liverpool

The forward was a Manchester City player last season before Pep Guardiola phased him out

Nolito (second left) celebrates scoring for Sevilla in their 2-1 win over Celta Vigo 

Nolito scored the winner for Sevilla in La Liga on Saturday and he'll start for them on Tuesday night as they try to beat Liverpool and increase their chances of topping the group and avoiding City, and therefore Pep, in the next round.

Players who have played under Guardiola are rarely left indifferent by the experience – Dani Alves still calls him a genius, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a coward. 

Nolito paints the picture of a headstrong, slightly overpowering leader, stubborn and serious, but with a gift that sets him apart.

'He's a wizard' he says. 'He would say in training: "this is how it is. And if you do that, that, and that, then this is what's going to happen on the pitch". And a lot of the time that is exactly how it worked out during a game.

'You do things with him on the training ground that you have never done before and he tells you how to apply it on the pitch and then later you think "b****y hell! He was right about that!" He's different.'

Nolito isn't too keen on Sevilla coming up against Pep Guardiola's powerful City side in the knockout stages of the Champions League this season

Nolito spent only one season with Manchester City after falling out of favour

It's not all praise. When the conversation turns to whether or not City lack leaders Nolito chuckles to himself as he says: 'The leader is Pep Guardiola. He is in charge. And that's enough leadership.' It doesn't seem like a compliment.

But he still calls Guardiola 'Mister' – the Spanish footballers' equivalent of 'Gaffer' – throughout our chat in the portable cabin press room at Sevilla's training ground, and he's grateful that he gave him an English experience - even if he did upset City fans when he told a Spanish radio interviewer: 'My daughter has turned pale and looks like she's been living in a cave.'

Of City's progress this season he says: 'It takes time but bit by bit they are changing and doing what the Mister wants. And you have to do what he wants. You have to do it his way; he is stubborn, very headstrong. But City are flying now and I hope they continue in that way.'

Speaking for both himself and his former manager he says: 'It is not easy arriving in the English league where the referees let play continue far more. It's more physical. And you dominate but give away one corner and the opposition score from it.

Nolito started his City career positively, scoring here against Celtic in the Champions League

The striker fires off a shot during City's return match against Celtic in the group stage

'I think he has gradually tailored the team to the English style. I'm not in his head but I think he has realized that you have to have to be stronger and quicker and you see that in signings like [Kyle] Walker and [Benjamin] Mendy.'

The low point for City last season came when they were knocked out of the Champions League by Mendy's Monaco. Nolito had already fallen out of favour and was watching from the stands.

'The Mister was destroyed,' he says. 'And the players too, because we were out before even the quarter-finals.'

Does he think Guardiola's tactics were to blame – sending his team out to attack boldly despite going into the game with a lead from the first leg?

'I don't think it was that. If you hang 11 players from the crossbar, then you are inviting the opposition to attack you. The problem was that Monaco were superior. They had more desire, greater intensity, more hunger. Football is lovely because you just never know what will happen.'

The Spaniard gets stuck into Bournemouth's Adam Smith, earning himself a red card

Nolito (right) celebrates after Pablo Sarabia scores a La Liga goal for Sevilla 

That last sentiment is unlikely to have been shared by his manager at the time. Does he think his former coach takes the game too seriously?

'Well yeeees,' he says slowly, before adding: 'like a lot of coaches. I'm not saying I don't take it seriously, but there are people who if they don't win they don't eat.'

Theatrically brushing his hands together he adds: 'In that situation you're out and that's it. It's over. You have to enjoy it because in the end it is a game. Sometimes the other team is better. Why suffer if in three days there is another match?'

Nolito's sunny disposition got him in trouble with supporters when he gave a radio interview in Spain in which he said the infamous 'living in a cave' line.

'It was just a joke, a throwaway line!' he says. 'And anyway it was true that it wasn't sunny! I did have to buy vitamin D for my two small girls, poor things. The paediatrician advised it.

'Perhaps if there is an Englishman who doesn't have a sense of humour then he was offended but no City fan will have heard me talking down Manchester.

Nolito pictured on a tractor while on international duty with Spain earlier this month

The 31-year-old is now focused on guiding his club Sevilla further in the Champions League

'It has its positives but it's sunnier in Spain. Why do lots of English come to Marbella? To Gibraltar? Or to my hometown in Sanlucar? They drink wine and eat Spanish ham. They are there with their socks.'

Now is he going for an Englishman's attire abroad? 'Even I ended up pale,' he adds pointing his finger, 'Like you!'

It's hard to be offended by Nolito. He's likeable even when he's describing how he doesn't much like something. It's also easy to see how he failed at City. 

He is glad to be home. He missed the late-night La Liga kick-offs. He hated the midday starts in England. 'I was having pasta for breakfast at 7am,' he says.

He felt isolated. His brother – his biggest fan who has a tattoo of Nolito's face on his inner forearm – came to visit but did not stick around.

'He came over for three or four days and but he was soon back on the flight to Gibraltar. I said "stay, what's the rush?"'

Nolito says he'll spend his days fishing with his brother when he retires. 'Maybe train the kids. Play for the local veterans team with a bit of gut on me.' 

Pictured along with Sevilla head coach Eduardo Berizzo during training this week

Nolito (left) trains alongside Gabriel Mercado as Sevilla get ready to face Liverpool 

But he doesn't want to be seen as being too negative about his City experience. 'My daughter was very happy in Manchester, eh! And my wife didn't want to leave. And they learned English. The only one who never learned English was me.'

The most positive thing about his year in Manchester seems to have been going to work every morning alongside David Silva.

Kevin De Bruyne is the name on everyone's lips at the moment but Nolito says: 'Yes he's magnificent but if you make me choose then I'm gonna say Silva.

'He is a magician and he is so underrated. He doesn't get the praise he deserves. There are players that get raved about far more in England.

'He is the best player in the Premier League and one of the best in the world. He doesn't score the most goals but what he does every week no other player in the Premier League does.

'There are other players who are powerful and quick and strong but they can't move with the ball as if it's tied to their boot. They don't have that calm, that pass. He is why a supporter pays £500 for his season ticket.'

It's fair to say Nolito didn't find some aspects of English culture - or weather - to his liking

Celebrating with Sergio Aguero after the Argentine scored for City in a friendly last season

So a more powerful City, with Silva still integral, will be the team for Nolito and Sevilla to avoid in the Champions League.

'I hope we don't meet them,' he says. 'Hopefully we'll top our group. Liverpool will not be easy. If you are not at your best against them they put four past you.'

It's ironic that he's now trying to avoid the man whose attention he was after and failed to attract during the second half of last season.

'I arrived there full of hope, coming to the best place in the world to play football, to England,' he says. 'But these things happen. I will always be grateful to him, he gave me the opportunity to play in the Premier League, at a great club like Manchester City. I never had a problem with the Mister.'

And there is one place where he wouldn't turn down a Pep reunion – in the Champions League final. 'Hombre! I hope so! Where do I sign? I'll sign for that right away.'